A great flow of water; a body of moving water; the flowing stream, as of a river; especially, a body of water, rising, swelling, and overflowing land not usually thus covered; a deluge; a freshet; an inundation.

A covenant never to destroy
The earth again by flood.
Milton.

2.

The flowing in of the tide; the semidiurnal swell or rise of water in the ocean; -- opposed to ebb; as, young flood; high flood.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
Shak.

3.

A great flow or stream of any fluid substance; as, a flood of light; a flood of lava; hence, a great quantity widely diffused; an overflowing; a superabundance; as, a flood of bank notes; a flood of paper currency.

4.

Menstrual disharge; menses.

Harvey.

Flood anchorNaut. , the anchor by which a ship is held while the tide is rising. -- Flood fence, a fence so secured that it will not be swept away by a flood. -- Flood gate, a gate for shutting out, admitting, or releasing, a body of water; a tide gate. -- Flood mark, the mark or line to which the tide, or a flood, rises; high-water mark. -- Flood tide, the rising tide; -- opposed to ebb tide. -- The Flood, the deluge in the days of Noah.

To overflow; to inundate; to deluge; as, the swollen river flooded the valley.

2.

To cause or permit to be inundated; to fill or cover with water or other fluid; as, to flood arable land for irrigation; to fill to excess or to its full capacity; as, to flood a country with a depreciated currency.